I was looking for a decent rim to lace up to a pair of Shimano SLX hubs for an XC, Trail, bike packing 29er rigid hardtail. I found these on blueskycycling.com and picked them up. They built up well. I had a local wheel builder put these together and had them tensioned to spec and I gotta say that these are exceeding my original expectations. They are stiff and strong. And with the SLX hubs they really put to power straight to the ground. If you get them have a pro put them together because I think that build quality makes a huge difference in the overall performance of the wheel.